Marilou Padilla (6th from left,) SterlingLand Residences and Development Inc. CEO, leads the groundbreaking ceremony of Minglanilla Highlands project in Minglanilla, southern Cebu. (CDN PHOTOS/LITO TECSON)
Local developer to invest P2B into hilltop community
Cebu-based developer SterlingLand Residences and Development Inc. is poised to spend over P2 billion in the next 14 years for a luxury mountain resort community in the southern town of Minglanilla.
Minglanilla Highlands, which will soon rise on a 25-hectare uphill property in Barangay Tubod, is SterlingLand’s third and biggest project in Cebu.
“We have big plans for Minglanilla. The objective is for Minglanilla to become a city. It’s very beautiful here, with all the surrounding areas, the scenic views, and everything. We will capitalize on the views and attract investors, tourists, and businessmen to put their businesses here in Cebu,” said SterlingLand president and chief executive officer Marilou Padilla during the groundbreaking ceremony for the project on Tuesday.
Padilla said that while they believe in the potential of the town, it is also their responsibility as developer to help develop economically the locality where they set up their business.
Minglanilla, a first municipal income class town 15 kilometers south of Cebu City, will soon host an industrial park expected to generate 100,000 jobs once it opens.
SterlingLand has two ongoing residential projects in Talisay City called Sea Breeze and Sta. Monica Estate.
The developer’s latest project is located approximately 2.8 kilometers northeast of downtown Minglanilla with the uphill site providing a view of the town, the ocean, and several mountain ranges.
Padilla said the development would be divided into four phases, with phase one alone costing “millions of pesos.”
Land development officially began on Tuesday and will take approximately one year to complete, to be followed by construction for phase one.
Renowned Filipino architect and urban planner Felino “Jun” Palafox Jr. is doing the conceptual master plan for the project.
Phase one will include the construction of around 330 of the planned 1,140 units which include townhouses, duplex, and single detached units as well as a portion of the Minglanilla Lifestyle Hub, where major institutional amenities like a religious shrine, a wedding chapel, and a mountain resort clubhouse will be located.
Padilla said phases one to three, excluding the lifestyle hub, would purely be residential while phase four would include a retirement village, an orchard, and other amenities.
The lifestyle hub, to be built on a half-hectare property adjacent to the residential component, will be open to the public.
Aside from positioning itself as the next lifestyle destination in the south, it is also primed to become a cradle of spirituality, with the colossal image of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal inspired by the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to be designed by top Cebuano sculptor, Architect Vic Gulani.
Each phase will take around two to three and a half years to complete, the developer said.
Minglanilla Highlands will target the upper mid-market segment including business executives, overseas Filipino workers, business process outsourcing workers, and those married to foreigners, among others.
The price range for each housing unit will be P3 million and above, all being two-storey structures with four bedrooms and one to two car parks, located uphill or downhill, depending on the buyer’s preference.
According to the developer, every feature of the project will be designed with environmental sustainability in mind and the concept that “a community is a living part of its natural surroundings and not something to be built at nature’s expense.”
It will be designed to cluster houses that will follow the natural contours of the environment to have minimal damage and effect on the natural setting, allowing for a more harmonious relationship between people and nature.
SterlingLand was established in 2013 after Cebu-based Schillings Finance Corporation decided to diversify into real estate in response to the growing need for residential housing among the middle class.